I’m a longtime reader of Rivers of London, your Urban Fantasy series featuring detective constable Peter Grant of the London Metropolitan police. When I heard you were working on a new, Rivers-of-London-adjacent short (216 pages) book set in Germany and centered around a different paranormal investigator, Tobias Winter, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I requested an advanced reading copy on the strength of my love for your voice.

Tobias Winter works for the Abteilung KDA, the “Complex and Diffuse Matters” department of the Federal Criminal Police in Germany. Tobias’s father is a local police chief, and Tobias has grown up steeped in policework and policemen. Maybe that is why he’s dedicated to his job—a job that requires him to keep mum about the magical dangers from which he and his boss protect the German public.

Tobias is on vacation, enjoying his father’s annual autumn bonfire party and lamenting his inability to trade war stories the way his father and his father’s friend Stefan do, when his father brings up Tobias’s tendency to overwork.

“Policing is a noble profession, Tobi,” he said. “But it’s still just a job, and you’re supposed to come home at the end of the shift to the important stuff.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Family,” said Papa. “Friends. The house, the hearth—the dog.”

Not that Tobias, or even his father, owns a dog.

The next day, while Tobias is out for a run, his boss, known mainly as the Director, phones and instructs him to get himself to Trier and help the Trier police assess whether a recent murder has a whiff of the supernatural about it. In Trier, he’s assigned a liaison from the local police department to work with, Vanessa Sommer, and he quickly determines that the murder was most definitely magical in nature.

The murdered man, Jorg Koch, is covered in a fungus called noble rot, sometimes used to infect wine grapes. The fungus is not supposed to grow on humans, much less all over the body and even in the lungs, as the noble rot did in the case of the dead man.

Tobias and Vanessa visit Jacqueline Stracker, a winemaker who recently reopened a vineyard situated not far from where Koch’s body was found. Frau Stracker claims to know nothing about the murder, but she does let slip that her grandfather believed that the Strackers owed their prosperity to a spiritual connection with the River Kyll.

One year, the teenaged Jacqueline retraced her grandfather’s path to a tree on a nearby island and left a wine bottle offering there, as her grandfather had. A pale, naked woman walked out of the river and said, “Tell your grandfather thank you for the wine. But the compact was broken the day they killed my mother. It is a new age and the old ways have gone.”

Tobias and Vanessa leave some of the best wine they can find at the same location and wait for the mystery woman–possibly the location spirit of the River Kyll–to contact them.

The police investigation proceeds apace. A tattooist that inked the face of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, on the murder victim’s upper arm is identified and the police begin a search for a friend of Koch’s.

Vanessa and Tobias are inspecting the dead man’s apartment when Tobias gets a call from the wine’s recipient. He and Vanessa race to meet up with her. The woman introduces herself as Kelly and she is indeed a river goddess. With Kelly is a French-speaking little girl—also a location spirit, and furious at Tobias—Morgane, the new goddess of the Mosul River. The previous goddess of the Mosul, Kelly’s mother, was murdered by Nazi magic practitioners during World War II.

Because her mother died at the hand of Tobias’s organization, Kelly is not inclined to help Tobias at first, but Koch’s friend, once located, and eventually Morgane, too, give Tobias clues that open up the case.

The October Man has snarky, witty narration that is similar enough to Peter Grant’s that at first I had to remind myself that Tobias wasn’t Peter. But a few chapters in, it became very evident that despite the similarity in their narration style, Tobias was a wholly different character.

Whereas Peter is curious and scientifically minded, Tobias is less interested in the nature of the magical beings he encounters and his attention is more directly on the crime. Where Peter stumbles occasionally but makes up for his mistakes with dedication and hard work, Tobias is equally hard-working but more focused. For all that he claims, at the end of the book, to be having too much fun to quit his job, Tobias also seemed more somber about it.

Peter starts Rivers of London as a newbie to policing and paranormal investigations, while Tobias is experienced in both. His liaison to the police department in Trier, Vanessa Sommer, has all the curiosity and inexperience that Tobias doesn’t. I ended up liking her a bit better than Tobias, though she was more professional and ambitious than Peter.

I am looking forward to seeing where Tobias, so far almost all work and no play, goes. He has one skill outside of police work: cooking. Otherwise there aren’t really quirks to him. And since he is a serious type, the book is less humorous.

Besides Tobias and Vanessa, there are other intriguing characters. Most of them, too, are more serious and less funny than the Rivers of London crowd. Kelly is understandably angry and bitter over the death of her mother. Morgane is at least as furious and kicks Tobias when they first meet.

Tobias’s boss, the Director, is chilly, ambitious for her department and occasionally caustic. I got the feeling that she might be Machiavellian, too, but one conversation she had with Tobias made it clear that there’s more to her than these simple dimensions.

Interestingly, the Director and Tobias are well aware of “the Nightingale” and his apprentice, Peter, but their British counterparts don’t know about them. Tobias’s department has an auxiliary unit of people who lack magical abilities but can be deployed to help out, and its leader was one of the funnier characters.

We also meet the murder victim’s friends, members of a wine club whose luck is a little too good. I loved this aspect of the story—how their group came together and how they ultimately parted.

Frau Stracker was interesting as well, and had a painful backstory that was important to the plot.

The novel has one of the best mysteries you’ve constructed. The setup is interesting, the conflict compelling and the plot has a twist or two. It’s intricate and substantial and it kept me guessing as to who the killer was almost up until the end. The motive for the villain’s obsession with another character could have been explained more clearly, but I love the procedural aspect of the book, the way Tobias and Vanessa are shown doing the actual legwork of investigating a crime.

It was nice to read an urban fantasy set in Germany; while I have never been there and cannot judge the authenticity or accuracy of its depiction, the book’s Trier had a distinctly different feel than the English locales in the Rivers of London series. That made the book feel fresh.

Further, Germany’s history came up more than once, and in interesting ways. There was some nice resonance to the way the events of World War II were described, but the German characters were human rather than villainous, which is to be commended.

The pacing is excellent, too. There’s a nice combination of action and downtime, and the book remains engaging from beginning to end. It never drags, and it also doesn’t feel frenetic, as some of your other books do. It’s cohesive and your voice is wholly appealing to me.

There is less diversity here than in the Rivers of London series, and I wonder if that is reflective of the change in setting. Is Trier less diverse than London? I would not know.

I enjoyed The October Man very much, though Tobias, while likable, isn’t yet as lovable as Peter. B+.

Comments

Thanks for this review, Janine. I’ve tucked it away to enjoy right after I read The October Man. Next step was to preorder the novella, as I hadn’t known it was coming. I’ve read and reread each of Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London novels, which are delightful on so many levels. As you read one of these stories, you are thrust into a richly diverse, energetic world with a sense of authenticity I can account for since it’s all made up. And the women—all in their way powerful, capable, utterly original and bold. It’s a trip. Great recommendation by Dear Author.

@Mzcue: Thanks! I love Aaronovitch’s writing too. You can probably tell since I’ve reviewed every one of his books (excluding the graphic novels). This one is set in Germany and has a different protagonist. It is also less diverse than the Peter Grant books. It’s got a different feel from the PG books to a certain extent, too. I would love to hear what you think of it. When is your preorder coming in? Here in the US it was published today.

Quick note: Amazon lists the print book as 216 pages and the digital version as 169 pages. I think it’s usually the other way around, with the page count higher for kindle books than for print books. I’m not sure how long the book actually is, but it read like a longish novella / shortish novel to me. There are 1796 kindle locations but I don’t know how that translates to pages..

Here in the US, the kindle price is all right but the hardcover is ridiculously priced. I hope it is reasonable for readers abroad.

@Janine: I was confused. My pre-order was a purchase. Or it turned into a purchase in the course of a few hours. Anyhow, it’s now nestled on my Kindle so I will be able to report back. Thanks for the extra heads up. Who knows how long it might have taken me to notice?

@Kareni: Very cool! See if they have the first book in the Rivers of London series (Titled Midnight Riot in the US and Rivers of London in the UK). It’s terrific too and probably a better starting place.

@JenniferH: You’re welcome! How great that your library has it! I would love to hear your thoughts on it if you feel like sharing.

@Janine: I’m so glad you brought October Man to my attention. I thoroughly enjoyed it though I’d have been happy to have about a third more of it to enjoy. The story seemed to wrap up a bit abruptly as if the barkeep had called the last round.

I liked Tobi Winter more than you did. He conveyed a touch of early battle fatigue, knowing how awful magic disasters could be, how little control there was to prevent them, and how vulnerable cops and civilians were in their ignorance. I felt it prevented him ever from letting down his guard completely, which contrasted nicely with Detective Sommer’s ebullience. I don’t know how authentic the observations are about good police work as he conducts his investigation, but they gave me a sense of having an inside line on detective science. That’s an appeal of Peter Grant’s narration in the Rivers series, as you pointed out.

I don’t understand the relationship between the London operation with Nightingale and Peter Grant and the secret German department. I suspect that’s something Aaronovitch is developing for the subsequent novels in the series. Delighted to find there’s a new one, False Value, due out this coming November. No hint in the description whether Tobi and Vanessa come into play though.

I have you to thank for a delightful evening and morning spent with Tobias, Vanessa and a very scary bunch of grapes.

@Mzcue: Yay, so glad you enjoyed it! I know nothing about Trier but I thought the change in setting gave it a lot of freshness.

Yes, you are right about Tobias. That’s very astute. I liked those touches too, though they were slightly on the too subtle side for me. Incidentally, it’a a little disconcerting to have a Tobi and a Toby in the same series! I guess Ben Aaronovitch must really like that name, LOL.

With regard to the relationship between the secret German department and the Folly, what I gleaned from this book is that the Germans spy on Nightingale and Peter without their knowledge. They know a lot about Peter and Nightingale while Peter and Nightingale know nothing about them. Of course, that may change in the future.

As a German I can vouch for the fact that Trier is a small city in the beautiful wine country at the edge of Germany. No, it’s not nearly as diverse as London. There is a lot of “Germanness” in the book – more than I expected. I thought it was interesting that he got the typical German feeling of inferiority to the great foreign counterpart.

I did think that Tobias and Peter had a lot in common and their thinking was very much alike, which is understandable since they have basically the same job. But the small things do matter, like the absence of architectural references. I enjoyed the ride and hope there will be more, especially on that Director…

@Janine: To me it seemed a bit more vague at times in comparison to how he discribes London. But then again he got all the typical store names and brands right, that are typically German. I admit that I was looking for mistakes, but could not really find anything grossly inadequate. So yes, it did work for me. He definitely convinced me that he has been to Trier.

I would like to see Tobias go to a larger city like Berlin, Hamburg or maybe Cologne, which might be closer to London for a more in depth comparison…
Let’s hope Mr. Aaronovitch makes another trip…

This is the first time I’ve checked out a review by Janine. I stopped reading at the tenth paragraph of a summary of the story. If I want to know what happens in a story, I can read it for myself, thank you very much. I despise so called reviews like this. It is possible to actually talk about the virtues and drawbacks of fiction without summarizing the plot. A good reviewer who wants to discuss a plot point gives a spoiler warning. This “review” reminded me of a forth grade book report.

@Marti Dolata: Thanks for the feedback; I really appreciate it and will think on what you say. I usually try not to summarize beyond the one-third point of the book so that I will not get into spoiler terrain, and to give only as much information as necessary to understand where my opinions are coming from, but on rare occasion I don’t know how to discuss what worked or didn’t work for me without going beyond the one-third mark, and sometimes I slip up, too. I will try to be more careful about hiding spoilers and including spoiler warnings in the future.

Help DA Out

DA is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program.

Tweets

Copyright

FTC Disclaimer

We do not purchase all the books we review here. Some we receive from the authors, some we receive from the publisher, and some we receive through a third party service like Net Galley. Some books we purchase ourselves. Login